Happy Mag’s guide to Laneway Festival 2019

Since holding their first festival in a Melbourne laneway back in 2005, St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival has become one of Australia’s favourites. Touring an always-brilliant selection of both homegrown and international artists, we spend the majority of each year waiting painfully for Laneway to roll back around.

As you may be able to tell, we’re getting pretty bloody excited for Laneway Festival next year… so we’ve compiled an extensive guide to this phenomenal event.

The Music

For many festivals nowadays, the music is an afterthought. Not Laneway.

As previously mentioned, this year’s lineup boasts an epic catalogue of brilliant acts… and while you definitely don’t want to miss sets from Gang Of Youths and Courtney Barnett, there are a stack of acts lower down on the bill that you should most certainly check out.

Laneway always put in the effort to stack their lineups with the finest international acts making the rounds. Of course, this year is no exception. Our number-one pick for the day is American singer-songwriter Mitski.

Fresh off the release of her absolutely incredible new album Be The Cowboy (you’ll struggle to find someone who disagrees with this opinion), Mitski is set to bring her endearing brand of indie-pop down under next January… and we can’t wait. If you haven’t already listened, we strongly reccomend you do so now.

Elsewhere on the lineup, New York indie post-punk outfit Parquet Courts will bringing their danceable art-punk vibes to the Laneway stage. Having released one of our favourite albums of the year Wide Awake! back in May, we can’t wait to catch this new material played live.

With a lineup this impressive, making singular recommendations will always be a difficult task… however, Masego, Clairo, and Jon Hopkins are all international favourites that we reckon you should definitely be across.

Clear The Schedule

Perhaps the best thing about Laneway is that you’ve got plenty of time to properly plan. There are a few key things you’re going to want to sort out before January and February roll around.

You’re biggest priority should undoubtedly be clearing your schedule. The last thing you want is to find yourself a week out from your selected festival date, only to realise that you’re all out of sick days and you can’t get out of work.

Put your leave in early. Chances are that you’ve got a few co-workers who are thinking the same thing… so beat them to the punch. Strike now.

Sunscreen

This is another incredibly important thing you’re going to want to take into consideration before embarking on your Laneway 2019 journey.

At last year’s festival, while I was frolicking around watching The Babe Rainbow play bongos and Roy Molloy review stools, I got severely sun-burned. It didn’t ruin my day, but it did make my Monday morning significantly more painful than it would have been otherwise.

Be on top of it. Again, your friends will love you for it.

Get A Damn Ticket

Of course, all these good times won’t be possible if you don’t buy yourself a ticket. They’re on sale now, and we can’t reccomend any festival more highly than Laneway.

If you’re strapped for cash, the festival also offer a Time To Pay option; which allows you to buy your ticket straight up and pay in increments over time.

If you’re a fan of Aussie music, if you’re a fan of music in general… Laneway is a festival you can’t miss. Do yourself a favour and head along. We’ll be seeing you there.